A Muggle Friend
by girlonthehill
Summary: What if Harry had a friend in Little Whinging? AU obviously . Post book 6 SORRY, ON HIATUS


I only have one chapter of this story at the moment, and it's really only the beginnings of an idea. But I thought I'd put it up here to see if anyone's interested in more?

And I don't own anything from the Wizarding world - I only wish I was that clever! Harry and Co. of course belong to JK Rowling. But Zoe is mine.

**Chapter One**

The green had come alive, in an orderly kind of way. Brightly coloured tents marched in impossibly straight rows, interspersed with fairground rides that seemed to run in unison. Couples strolled amongst the tents as if they were aisles in a supermarket – each stall was to be perused, each ride ridden. Each test of skill to be played once, or perhaps twice, if the player were lucky the first time.

Only the children failed to conform. Those lucky enough to have broken free of apron strings ran between the tents, bouncing around like balls in a pinball game. They laughed and chattered, blissfully ignorant of the disapproving looks thrown their way by the sterner residents of Little Whinging.

Still, it was a cheerful autumn day.

At midday, the residents gathered in the centre of the green. The primary school children stood in undulating lines, still chattering and laughing. The teachers hurried around, trying to produce in their charges some of the orderliness displayed by their watching parents.

At the back of the crowd of proud parents stood the older children, among them a girl of perhaps 17. She was of average height, and would have gone unnoticed amid the other teenagers except for her unruly hair, which defied the attempts she made every few seconds to arrange it. She was silent, appeared to be concentrating on an empty space in front of her.

In truth the girl, Zoë, was thinking. She was wondering about the change in her friend Harry, who'd she had seen only briefly in the summer just gone. For the past six years, he had spent the school year away at a special boarding school, returning only for the summer holidays. Although she missed him, Zoë was happy that Harry could be away from Little Whinging, and from the aunt and uncle he lived with.

Harry and Zoë had been best friends in primary school, so Zoë knew how horrible Harry's uncle and aunt were, though she had never been invited to Harry's house to experience them first hand. His guardians let it be known that they had sent Harry to a school for incurably criminal boys, but when he returned from his first year away, Harry had told Zoë that he loved his school. That it was called Hogwarts, not St Brutus's.

But even after that first year, Harry had changed. Each summer when Zoë saw him, if only for a short time, he seemed almost to be a different person. Darker, she thought, more brooding, as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He still laughed with her, and his hazel eyes still glimmered, but he wasn't as happy as he tried to tell her. Surely years away from the Dursleys should have made him happy. Zoë had hoped that he would have learned to stand up straighter, learned that he didn't have to live a downtrodden life.

She was also wondering about the strange things that had been happening all over Britain. Ordinarily, thoughts of Harry and thoughts of oddities shouldn't have intermingled, but Harry had said some strange things the last time they'd spoken. Warned her to be careful, not to drift around on her own at night. _That_ had made her annoyed. After all, he had spent his whole time in Little Whinging that summer drifting around alone at night.

And that was another thing. She was sure that Harry had been avoiding her. That had never happened before. The only reason he had warned her at all was that she'd finally cornered him the night before he left.

* * *

"_Harry! Harry, wait!"_

_He turned around, finally, unable to plausibly ignore her voice. She caught up to him on the street outside the grocers._

"_What?"_

"_What do you mean, what? You've been ignoring me! You haven't come to see me once! I thought we were friends!"_

"_We are, Zoë, I'm sorry. It's just…"_

"_Just what? Harry, what's wrong with you?"_

_Harry didn't reply. Zoë glared for a moment, and noticed Harry flinch when a dog barked somewhere near._

"_Tell me!" She was annoyed at him, but also a little spooked at his behaviour. Instead of replying, he pulled her towards the deliveries alley by the side of the grocers. She watched his eyes as they darted furiously around, looking either way up the street, across into the garden opposite, up into the sky._

"_What's wrong?"_

_Harry sighed, "I can't tell you everything, you have to promise to believe me."_

_Zoë snorted at this. "You're acting like some sort of spy or something."_

"_I'm sorry, Zoë, I know it sound crazy." He paused, seeming to consider what to say next. "You, you know all the strange things that are happening. The people going missing, the odd weather?" Zoë nodded, and Harry rushed on. "Well, there's a person behind all that. He's… evil. He's gathering power, and he's after me because I'm the only one who can stop him."_

"_Evil? Power? Harry, don't be ridiculous, this isn't the movies."_

"_I know. It's real. This… man, he had someone murder the headmaster at my school this year. It sounds ridiculous, but it's not. He's tried to kill me before. I've been avoiding you because I don't want him to come after you. I don't want him to hurt you."_

"_I can defend myself. I'm not some stupid girl. But why would I need to? This is Little Whinging. It's the most boring place on the planet."_

"_You can't defend yourself against this man. He's strong. Please, just, for now, be safe? Don't wander around alone at night?"_

"_This is stupid Harry. What's really wrong? And since when did you tell me what to do?" Zoë couldn't imagine what had got Harry like this. He seemed to actually believe that there was someone after him._

"_Please Zoë? I have to go."_

"_No," she grabbed his arm. "Come home with me. Come and sit down in the light and tell me stuff. We haven't talked for like, a year. Come on." She tugged on his arm._

"_I can't. I don't want anyone to see me with you."_

"_What? So you don't want to be seen with me anymore? Got too cool at your special school for the likes of me?" Zoë's temper, the equal of Harry's, was quickly getting the better of her. She wanted to know what was up with him, but he was just being impossible._

"_No. But I have to go. I'm sorry. Just, be careful. And stay away from anywhere with a skull shaped cloud above it." He wrenched free of her grip and walked quickly further down the alley and around the back of the building._

"_What kind of stupid advice is that?" she shouted after him._

_There was a loud crack and Zoë jumped. She ran down the alley and around the corner, expecting to see Harry sprawled across some old boxes or something. Instead there was no sign of him._

"_Harry? Harry? Where'd you go?"_

* * *

It made Zoë angry just thinking about their exchange. Imagine running off like that!

The teachers had finally hassled some semblance of straight lines into the group of children. The music teacher was moving to the front of the group and a hush had fallen across the centre of the green when there were several loud cracks from the direction of the ferris wheel. These were followed quickly by a large amount of shouting.

The fragile lines of children disintegrated, and even the regimented adults turned and began to look about them. One row of tents obscured the ferris wheel from the crowd at the centre of the green. Everyone now turned towards the tents, including Zoë, startled out of her anger. Surely there wasn't something interesting happening in Little Whinging?


End file.
